


A Disappearing Act in Three Parts

by athoroughlybakedpotato (acommontater)



Category: Turn (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 14:56:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8757052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acommontater/pseuds/athoroughlybakedpotato
Summary: God had seen fit to grant her a pretty face and most days she was glad for it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Or, An Alternate History of Anna Strong

I.

Anna had always been told that she was pretty.

Her aunts and older cousins would cluck their tongues about it.

 _Such a pretty face_ , they would say, _you’ll have to be careful with such a pretty face, my dear, if you want to catch yourself a good wife_.

As she’d grown and the scolding had become more serious- cousins wrinkling their noses _come now stop being such a woman, law school leaves no room for such nonsense_ \- she’d hardened her resolve. Grows her hair longer than the fashion of the day _\- really how is the hairdresser supposed to que and club this_ her mother asks in exasperation. She practices pitching her voice high even as it cracks and falls and betrays her.

She doesn’t go to law school. She gets out of the carriage, thanks her cousin for accompanying her, waits until he is out of sight, and promptly vanishes into the bustling city life.

(Her family never hears from her again and they aren’t sure whether to grieve or not.)

II.

She buys dresses, and shoes, and thanks God for having gifted her with a naturally slight frame and a pretty enough face that she goes undetected.

(One evening on her way home to the apartment she’d rented out under a false name, she runs into a couple that she thinks might know. The woman has a towering blonde bouffant hairdo and holding a delicate parasol in her dainty hand. Her other hand is tucked into the crook of her companion’s arm, a smaller man dressed immaculately, without a hair out of place in his wig. The man has a sly look to him and he scans Anna up and down in a way that makes her glad to be wearing breeches and shirt today. His pursed lips quirk in an almost familiar way, but he says nothing. The interaction on the sidewalk lasts only a beat or two as they pass her, but Anna stand frozen for slightly longer, clutching the package containing her new dress to her chest.)

She meets Selah Strong by chance. She needs to get out of the city before any word can get back to her family, and he longs for a wife. She is terrified of what he may do when he discovers her greatest secret, knows that he could have her jailed at best or kill her at worst, but she has nothing left to lose now. But God seems to see it fit to grant her another miracle, and after a few days of silence, Selah returns and loves her still.

(She cries until she cannot breathe of out relief.)

He contacts some friends of his on the black market for some papers so that they can get married. It’s a quick thing, he has left his business in his hometown for far too long and she needs to leave the city as soon as possible. Selah’s home is a small town in New Jersey, quiet and slow and perfect. Nobody knows anything about her here.

III.

She is a wife and she is happy.


End file.
